Make no mistake about it — Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Craig S. Strong has high regard for his richly colored designer suits. But that doesn’t compare to his love for the residents of his hometown, Detroit. Now you know that is caring a whole heck of a lot, especially if you’ve ever seen the resplendent celebrity judge dress up an upscale event with his head-turning power suits. Or watched him traipse down the red carpet at award shows and outshine headline entertainers with his alligator shoes and matching fedoras.
Strong, a criminal law judge, decided to enter law school while an undergraduate at the HBCU giant, Howard University. Strong saw law as the best way to help blacks attain more equity in America and to eradicate overt vestiges of rancid racism, in the tradition of the legendary Thurgood Marshall.
In the meantime, Strong’s judgeship has become his ministry whereby he works to transform the lives of people who appear before him in his Motown hometown, particularly the lives of wayward youth.
“In the courtroom, I try to change lives and attitudes, especially the people before me as well as their families and spectators. I try to deal with conflict resolution,” says Strong, whose philanthropic activities include clothing drives and on occasion, free legal services. “So many of our young people get into trouble because they use guns to resolve conflict. They don’t understand the importance of being able to walk away and live to see another day.”
Strong, a clothing connoisseur who may well be the best-dressed public official Detroit has ever seen, leverages his love of fashion to help young people develop a proper sense of dress and decorum.
“Some kids don’t understand that your clothes have to be clean and coordinated, and always be appropriate for the occasion. A lot of young people don’t own suits and they don’t have leather shoes. Consequently, I have involved myself in ‘Jackets for Jobs’ in which I teach young people how to tie ties, how to dress for job interviews, how to pick out appropriate clothes and how to become well-groomed.” –terry shropshire
